Less than Perfect
by CaptainSparrow09
Summary: On Valentine's Day, Sam and Ainsley's night doesn't go exactly as planned.


Disclaimer: I own anyone that you do not recognize. Everyone else belongs to Aaron Sorkin. The restaurant is a real place too so that doesn't belong to me.

Spoilers: Everything just to make sure and my stories.

* * *

Ainsley held back a sigh she put her lipstick on and shot the alarm clock a frustrated glare. The poor machine, if it could think, was probably wondering why the petite, southern, blonde was about ready to take her anger out on itself. In the mirror, she saw the door to her bedroom open and Sam's head poked in.

"I'm late. I know. I'm sorry. I was in a meeting."

"One night Sam. That's all I asked."

"I'm here and we are leaving."

"Are you changing?"

"Yes." he entered the room completely and eyed her for a minute but didn't say anything.

"Then we're not leaving."

"I'll be five minutes."

"I'm timing you."

"You look hot."

"Don't try buttering up to me."

"I'm not. I'm stating a fact."

"Get dressed," she pointed towards their bathroom and he grabbed the clothes that were sitting out on their bed, then did as he was told. Ainsley shook her head and turned back to the mirror. She frowned at her reflection and tossed the lipstick down onto her vanity. "Okay, we'll just start over,"

She began wiping the makeup off, sighing to herself.

'_I don't know why I'm trying to look all nice anyway. We've been married nearly five years. He sees how horrible I look in the mornings when I first wake up and talks about how beautiful he thinks I look. He's seen me on my worst days and still thinks I look perfect. Then again, there is a reason why he wears glasses. But it doesn't matter! He's supposed to love and adore me no matter how I look. I shouldn't be breaking my back trying to look... sexy. I need to have colors that don't make me look like I'm going to work as a prostitute.' _

"Hi!"

Ainsley glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Gracie, who toddled into the room.

"Well hello there missy,"

Gracie walked further towards her mother, then stopped and stared inquisitively up at her. She smiled and said,

"Mommy look pretty."

"Thank you honey."

"I look pretty,"

"You always look pretty."

But Gracie was reaching for the makeup in front of Ainsley, who chuckled softly.

"You're a little too young for that." she said, pushing the objects out of reach. Gracie pulled herself up onto Ainsley's lap and reached out again. She grabbed a tube of lipstick and twisted herself so she could she her mother.

"What this?"

"That is lipstick," she plucked it out of her daughter's chubby fingers and looked at the color. "Huh. I completely forgot I had this,"

Ainsley pulled the cap off and applied some onto her lips.

"You have good taste munchkin," she mumbled, then saw Gracie staring at her. "What?"

"I try."

"Just a tiny bit," she barely put any on Gracie's lips at all but the toddler turned and grinned at her reflection.

"Pretty."

"Absolutely gorgeous." Ainsley smiled. "Now, I have to find eyeshadow that goes with this lipstick. I don't think I should wear any makeup at all but I want to look pretty for Daddy. Daddy, on the other hand, says he could care less but I know when I do look pretty he likes it. What do you think?"

"Daddy pretty too."

"Yes, Daddy is very good looking. Hmm, what about this?" she showed Gracie a container of eyeshadow and waited for a response.

"Nice."

"Okay." Ainsley tried to put the eyeshadow on but it was rather hard with Gracie squirming around in her lap. "Hey, relax. You're gonna fall."

She finally stopped and began playing with Ainsley's hair, making her sigh.

"I want pretty hair too." she said.

"You have very pretty hair Gracie."

"No. I want this," she fingered the soft curls that were in place of her mother's usually straight hair.

"Ah... you want curly hair."

"Yup."

"I'll tell you what, tomorrow we'll make your hair curly but right now I have to finish getting ready so you need to get down, okie doke?"

"Okie doke." she climbed off Ainsley's lap as Sam came out of the bathroom, buttoning his shirt. "Daddy!"

"Hey there. Ainse, are you ready?"

"I've been ready."

"Then let's go."

"Where you goin'?" Gracie asked, looking at both her parents.

"Daddy and I are going to go out to dinner." Ainsley explained.

"I'll go too."

"Ah... you can't." Sam said simply. Gracie's face fell and she stared up at her father.

"Why not?"

"Because it's uh... Mommy and I want to have a night out just to ourselves."

"That's no fair."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you going?"

"It's Valentine's Day. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I got you something special so come downstairs with me and I'll give it to you. Then, this weekend, I'll take you to Chuck E. Cheese."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Okay. So we'll let Mommy finish getting ready because she's not done even though she says she is and we'll go see what I bought you." Sam said, picking Gracie up.

"I am ready!" Ainsley called after him.

"You're missing something!"

Ainsley looked down at herself, then realized she didn't have shoes. She turned and looked into her closet, which made her whimper. Why, oh why, did she have to love shoes so much? Now she had too many options to choose from.

Fifteen minutes later, Ainsley was downstairs in the living room where Sam and Gracie were sitting, playing with a very cuddly looking teddy bear. He glanced up, hearing heels click against the floor, and grinned.

"Very nice."

"Yes. I'm wearing something else that I think you'll find very nice as well."

"Would this very nice something happen to come from a store at the mall that goes by the name of Victoria?"

"Perhaps."

"Should we just skip dinner?"

"No. You just have to wait and see."

"That's cruel."

"Too bad. Where's the babysitter?"

"I don't know. What time did you tell her?"

Something changed in Ainsley's look and she walked closer to Sam, making him frown.

"I didn't tell her anytime because I told _you _to call her."

"No. No, no, no. No you didn't."

"Yeah I did. You didn't call Sam?"

"You never said that!" he exclaimed. Ainsley pressed a hand against her forehead, clamping her eyes shut.

"Yes I did. I specifically remember telling you."

"When?"

"About four days ago when you made reservatio—oh God, you did make reservations at a restaurant right?"

"Yes! Yes I did! Really nice place too, I think you're gonna like it."

"I don't think we're going!"

"Yes we are! I'll call someone!" Sam dashed to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. Ainsley sat down on the couch next to Gracie and put her head in her hands. She had spent hours getting ready and spent money on sexy lingerie and now, all that time and effort was going to be wasted. Well, the lingerie probably wouldn't be wasted. Sam's birthday was coming up at the end of the month...

"When the hell did you get a boyfriend? Alright, geez, I'm sorry. Yeah same to you."

"Who was that?"

"Christine."

"Who?"

"The one down the street. The dorky one? She's going out tonight with her boyfriend."

"I think everyone will be out on Valentine's Day."

"Not everyone." Sam dialed another number and waited, "Hey Josh. What's up?"

"No! You're not leaving my baby with Josh!"

"She's three years old! What... oh, okay then. I wasn't... right, alright. Bye." he hung the phone up and said, "He and Donna are having dinner."

"Well they are married so I'm not surprised."

"Do you think my mom would watch her?"

"Your mother is six hours away by plane. Let's be realistic."

"What about your mother?"

"Absolutely not. What about Toby?"

"He and Andie are doing something."

"CJ?"

"Ah... CJ might work." Sam dialed the number and waited and waited and waited.

"Hi this is CJ. I actually finished work early and I'm catching up on some well needed sleep. Leave a message after the beep."

"Okay, maybe not." he hung the phone up and stared at the wall. "I don't believe you told me to call a babysitter."

"Do you really want to start with me?"

"Not really."

"What about Charlie?"

"Him and Zoey got back together."

"Abbey?"

"Abbey?" Gracie sat up straighter. "Grandma Abbey and Grampa Jed?"

Ainsley turned so she could see Sam and shot him a scathing look.

"You better hope to god that they will watch her or else you just broke her heart and made this night a hell of a lot worse."

He felt fear grip at him and quickly dialed the White House number.

"Yeah, this is Congressman Seaborn. I'd like to speak with the President."

"I love how when you want something you play the 'Congressman' card." Ainsley said.

"Don't talk to me." he pointed a finger at her, shaking his head. "Don't."

"This is all your fault."

"You never—Mr. President, hey. I uh... I got a question. Ainse—ah... Ainsley and I were going out for the night and there was some er... miscommunication about finding a babysitter. So we were wondering if you and uh... Abbey weren't doing anything—really? Thank God. Are you sure? I mean, it is Valentine's Day... oh. Okay, well yeah... right. Thank you."

He hung up the phone and punched a fist into the air.

"They'll watch her."

"Are they sure?"

"Yeah. They weren't doing anything anyway. They had their little celebration last weekend just in case something came up today. So let's go."

"Well, now I have to get Gracie dressed."

"Hurry up. I am da man."

"Don't flatter yourself."

* * *

"I'm sorry about the babysitter." Sam said, glancing over at Ainsley.

"It's fine. You fixed it." she muttered. "You know, something was off about Gracie today."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I just hope she isn't getting sick. The kids at her preschool have all been sick."

"Well that should be fun when it happens. Did she seem okay?"

"She didn't seem herself."

"Great." Sam pulled the car into the parking lot of I Ricchi, an Italian restaurant. "You're going to love this place. I ate here last month with Connelly when we had that meeting."

"Food good?"

"Would I take you somewhere that didn't have good food?"

"No."

Sam got out of the car and walked around, opening the door for Ainsley. They walked into the restaurant hand in hand and Sam gave the hostess a smile when she saw them.

"Hi. Welcome to I Ricchi. Do you have a reservation?"

"Yes. It's under Seaborn."

The hostess nodded and began looking.

"It says the reservation was for six o'clock. You never showed up so we had to let other guests take your table."

"That's not possible. I said seven-thirty."

"It says here six. I'm sorry."

"I don't believe this."

"Sam," Ainsley put a hand on his back, making him turn. "When you made the reservations, were you talking with anyone else?"

"Why?"

"I'm just wondering because if you were talking with someone else, you might have meant the reservations to be seven-thirty but said six, which was the time for the other thing."

"That could possibly have happened." Sam turned back to the hostess, who was waiting expectantly for them to leave. "Do you have any open tables?"

"Sir, the restaurant is extremely busy and we have reservations lined up the entire night. I'm sorry."

"But—"

"Come on," Ainsley took Sam's hand and gave the hostess a smile.

"Thank you for your time." and then she tugged Sam out of the restaurant.

"Well, I just felt like the biggest idiot on the face of the earth."

"You should."

"Honey, I'm sorry. Come on, we'll... go to that dancing place you like. Or we'll go to that uh... that other restaurant you like."

"Look Sam, I know you're trying to make up to it but it's Valentine's Day and there's not going to be a restaurant that isn't crowded and have a waiting time of more that two hours."

"Do you just want to go home?"

"I think that's our only option."

"You don't want to go dancing?"

"Not really."

"You want to go get a drink?"

"Yeah, okay."

So ten minutes later, they were walking into a bar that was filled with happy couples and some lonely people.

"You want to sit at the bar?" Sam asked.

"I don't think there's anywhere else to sit," Ainsley replied, moving closer to him. He shrugged and they sat down at a bar, waiting for a bartender to walk over.

"What can I get you?" one finally asked.

"I'll have a beer and she'll take a Pink Squirrel," Sam replied. The younger man nodded and walked away, leaving the couple alone. Sam glanced around the bar, then looked back at his wife, who was chomping on some pretzels. "Okay, so am I alone in saying I feel really old here?"

"Yes."

"These are young kids."

"I'm also thirty-one. You're nearing forty."

"I'm thirty-five."

"You're old."

"You could at least say I'm thirty-five."

Ainsley gave Sam a look and he sighed, rubbing her back gently.

"I'm sorry I screwed up our Valentine's Day." he said as their drinks arrived. "Okay?"

"Apology accepted."

"When we go home, we'll put Gracie to bed and I'll cook dinner for us."

"Okay. I was looking forward to a romantic night out."

"Hey, I can be romantic. We'll be romantic. Nothing more will go wrong with this night."

At that moment, a young man bumped into Ainsley, spilling his drink over the front of her dress.

"Er... sorry," he mumbled and walked away. She stared down at her dress and looked back up at Sam, who looked surprised.

"Honey,"

Ainsley didn't say anything but instead downed her drink in one gulp.

"Let's go get Gracie and go home."

"Do you want to—"

"No. Let's just go."

Sam nodded and threw a few bills onto the bar, then lead a grumpy Ainsley out of the bar.

* * *

"I'm not seeing the sexy lingerie tonight, am I?" Sam asked, looking over at Ainsley. She shook her head as she took a sip of her wine.

"But your birthday is in two weeks so maybe you'll get lucky."

"Are we even going to have sex tonight?"

"I wouldn't count on it if I were you,"

"I said I was sorry and now I'm making dinner."

"It's macaroni and cheese."

"At least it's something."

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry if I've been short with you tonight and seem ungrateful in all that you've done but—"

"Oh I don't blame you. It's been one of those nights. But, I know one thing that can't go wrong."

"What's that?"

"This," Sam reached into his pocket and handed Ainsley a small box. She smiled slightly and opened the top, revealing a pair of sparkling sapphire earrings.

"They're beautiful Sam. Thank you." she leaned over and kissed him gently.

"I am sorry," he mumbled.

"I know. Don't worry about it."

"Does this mean I'll be getting some action tonight?"

"You're gaining points back."

"Fantastic."

Gracie walked into the kitchen then and she looked a bit green.

"Mommy, I don't feel good."

"You don't? What's wrong?"

"My tummy hurts." and the three year old promptly threw up.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Ainsley said, looking at Sam before going to clean up Gracie. "You feel a bit better?"

She shook her head and Ainsley sighed, then looked at Sam again.

"Can you get the floor?"

"Sure."

An hour and a half later, they were laying in bed. Sam was sprawled out in the middle with Gracie curled up on his left side. Ainsley was laying on his right with an arm wrapped around him. She fingered Gracie's hair gently, then looked up at Sam.

"Are we definitely calling this a bad Valentine's Day?"

"Nah."

"Really?"

"Of course. I can't see a better way to spend Valentine's day than in bed with my two beautiful girls."

"You're so cheesy."

"It's the truth and for the rest of the Valentine's Days we celebrate, we're just going to stay home."

"I agree." Ainsley put her head back down on Sam's chest and shut her eyes. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"What about me?" Gracie mumbled.

"We love you too."


End file.
